On June 30, 1726, at 2 p.m., Captain José Calderón Borallo of the Kingdom of Spain had just arrived at the Gate of Heaven (present-day Ceuta) on a galleys when he was surprised to see thousands of black troops rushing out of the city towards a makeshift barracks on the east side of the pier.

Could these black armies be mercenaries recruited by the Qi State?

"Oh God, the people of Qi are not going to launch a counterattack against the English in Gibraltar!" The thought flashed through Colonel José's mind, and his whole body trembled with excitement.

If the people of Qi have this idea, it would be great!

This means that this time, he was ordered by General Juan to send Tianmen and Qi to jointly launch a counterattack against England, and it is very likely that an agreement will be reached, and maybe he will be able to recover Gibraltar in one fell swoop.

Speaking of the battle against England, the Spaniards were also extremely depressed.

After several large-scale battles between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar in August and September last year, the Kingdom of Spain officially declared war on England in January this year, and the two countries entered a state of all-out war.

However, the subsequent rounds of attacks organized by the Spanish against Gibro were in vain in the face of the strong fortresses carefully built by the English, and many losses of personnel and materials were lost, and the morale of the army was extremely low.

Later, the Spaniards came back to the fact that Gibraltar was a small place with a small population and materials, and the terrain was narrow, and it was impossible to achieve self-sufficiency in basic materials. Under the long-term siege of thousands of Spanish troops, the English defenders should have been trapped for a long time, if not out of ammunition and food.

Today, the British have repeatedly thwarted the attacks of the Spanish army by relying on their fortifications, simply because their supplies have always been unimpeded, and the necessary food, weapons and ammunition will be continuously brought from England mainland or Portugal.

Yes, we still have to fight a naval battle with England!

In this way, the sea transportation line of Gibraltar was completely blocked, and the British army here became a lone army trapped in a dead place, and finally had to surrender voluntarily.

As a result, Spain dispatched more than 20 warships and conscripted more than 10 armed merchant ships to form an attack fleet, which first assembled in the port of Almeria and waited for a suitable opportunity to attack.

On 5 February, the Spanish fleet reached the waters near Gibraltar and, with its numerical superiority, drove back more than a dozen English warships that remained there, finally achieving a long-lost victory.

Who knows, in the next few days, when the Spanish fleet approached the shore and took turns to bombard the British batteries in response to the army's attack on Gibraltar, England actually sent a large support fleet, and a fierce naval battle broke out between the two sides in the Bay of Algeciras.

The battle lasted seven hours, and at 9 o'clock in the evening, they were separated from the battlefield.

Tragically, the Spanish fleet, which had already lost six warships, two armed merchant ships, and many ships wounded due to a fierce battle, encountered the English fleet that had been driven back by them at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, passing through Gibraltar and preparing to sail to the port of Cádiz (which is the most important military port in Spain and can provide perfect repair and maintenance for damaged ships).

In the spirit of taking advantage of your illness to kill you, the English fleet immediately pounced on the Spanish fleet, and in a frenzied bite, and in the pursuit of several hours--yes, the Spaniards, fearing that more English ships would come behind them, had no intention of fighting, and hastened to flee, and the Spanish fleet lost five ships again and fled back to the port of Cádiz.

Later, Spain learned from various sources that the English fleet, which had suddenly arrived in Gibraltar, was originally going to Egypt to attack several trading ports controlled by the Qi people in order to cut off its Red Sea-Mediterranean trade. Unexpectedly, on the way to the expedition, he happened to bump into the Spanish fleet.

In this way, the Spaniards were a little less lucky, and the well-organized sea and land offensive was actually cracked by the English in such a very unexpected way.

As a result, Britain and Spain formed a stalemate on the battlefield in Gibraltar.

Faced with this situation, some court ministers suggested whether they could unite the Qi people to attack England together, and they were strong enough to suppress the English navy.

Since the arrival of the Qi expeditionary fleet in Europe in July last year, it has defeated the English navy several times, and has successfully landed on its mainland and burned Liverpool, just as the Dutch had invaded London along the Thames decades earlier, which has greatly humiliated England in front of the entire European nation.

In November last year, a large-scale naval battle broke out between the English Navy and the Qi Expeditionary Fleet off the Faroe Islands, although both sides claimed victory in the battle after the battle.

However, the keen Spaniards still learned from various sources that the English seemed to have suffered considerable losses in this battle, and in addition to more than a dozen third- and fourth-class battleships and ordinary cruisers that were sunk and damaged, many first- and second-class main battleships were killed in battle, and more than 2,000 officers and men were killed or wounded.

On the other hand, the Qi Expeditionary Fleet, after the war, not only did not shrink its forces and died down, but was still very active in the waters of the North Atlantic, continuing to intercept and attack the merchant ships of England. They even had the strength to attack the Portuguese Azores, and they frequently organized armed transports to carry some war materials to Ireland, and covered the Jacobite landing off the coast of Scotland, which clearly proved one thing, the English lied, and they did not inflict heavy losses on the expeditionary fleet of the Qi country, but suffered heavy losses themselves, and the situation was extremely bad.

Otherwise, the English would not have organized an expeditionary fleet to cross the Mediterranean Sea to attack the ports of the Qi people in Egypt to cut off their Red Sea-Mediterranean trade. This was obviously because he was in a hurry, and he was so angry that he did not hesitate to risk offending the Ottoman Empire, and wanted to find a place in Egypt to add some blockage to the Qi people.

Since both have such a common enemy as England, can the two countries work together to deal with England?

What, do you have to worry about the glory of the Kingdom of Spain?

Have you forgotten that more than ten years ago, the Qi people took advantage of the War of Succession to the Throne to brazenly launch an invasion of the Kingdom of Spain, and many of the kingdom's overseas territories, such as the Canary Islands, La Plata, the East Coast, Baja California, Coiba, the Pearl Islands, and the Azuelo Peninsula near the Isthmus, were seized by it, and the above territories were forcibly ceded to the Qi State after the war. There is also the Qingguo they support, which from time to time makes some border incidents in the Americas, encroaching on land, and plundering people and materials.

Of course, the noble ministers including King Philip V did not forget the harm caused by the Qi people to the Spanish kingdom, and they are still haunted by it.

However, in that war, it was not only the Qi people who hurt us, England, the United Provinces, the Holy Roman Empire, and a number of German states also shouted and killed Spain, and even invaded Spain proper.

There are some things that have passed, just let them pass, if you always remember the sadness of the past, it will not help the country, will it?

Moreover, in the current situation of the Kingdom of Spain, it seems to be difficult to deal with the English alone, and even so, it is reasonable to contact the people of Qi to deal with England together.

While the Spanish court ministers were repeatedly discussing and arguing about this matter, news came from the front line of Gibraltar that there was another powerful fleet of more than 10 warships in Qi, which had arrived in Ceuta, and might be preparing to launch an attack on the English fleet anchored in the port of Gibraltar.

The Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Duke Giulio Alberoni, immediately ordered General Juan, the commander of the front-line army, to contact the Qi people and meet them to attack England from both land and sea, so as to recover Gibraltar in one fell swoop.

So, after receiving a face-to-face instruction from General Juan, Colonel José ventured across the Strait at night, avoiding the cruising English warships, and came to Ceuta to meet with the Supreme Commander of the Qi State in the area to discuss the formulation of a unified and coordinated battle plan.

——

"I remember that His Majesty Taizu once said that a country's navy is very likely to wipe out its entire family in one afternoon." Wan Botai, commander-in-chief of the Qi State Expeditionary Fleet, commander of the West Indian Ocean Fleet, and general (admiral) of the Navy Hussars, stood on Tianmen Mountain (that is, Hazhuo Mountain in the territory of Ceuta), looked at the more than 30 warships moored in the harbor, and said with great emotion: "Fortunately, with the support of the two generations of emperors of Taizu and Taizong, our Qi country finally established the world's largest and most powerful navy. If, with the strong national strength and advanced industrial manufacturing power of our country, we can replace the lost ships in the shortest possible time, then our Qi navy will be able to firmly control the sea, so as to maintain our global hegemony. ”

When the surrounding admirals heard this, they all said yes, and they were deeply convinced by what Wan Botai said.

Because, you can see a naval war as a hammer deal, and the competition is for internal forces and the stock of warships.

How do internal forces come about? Study hard day in and day out!

How did the stock of battleships come from? Year after year, throwing money at money, throwing money at money!

The army's muskets and artillery, as well as war horses, a company, or a regiment, or even a regiment, are only hundreds or thousands of people, or tens of thousands, but as long as the personnel are in place and the equipment is handed over, they can immediately enter the battle.

This is not the case with the navy, a ship in the navy has as few as a few dozen or even hundreds of personnel, and as many as four or five thousand tons of large battleships, there may be several thousand more fighters and equipment operators, and the service time of equipment is calculated in units of five or ten years, and the time to form combat effectiveness is also a long process. If you start from shipbuilding, it will not take a few years to lay the keel, complete, outfit, sea trial, and finally form combat effectiveness.

At the same time, the navy is also a branch of the military that eats the level of equipment and technology, and the gap in equipment and technology cannot be made up by military morale and morale, which is completely different from the army.

The army only needs to maintain the quality and number of core officers and some non-commissioned officers and veterans, and it can expand exponentially by snowballing, and the century-old navy is not just talking.

Therefore, the size of the navy, the size of the fleet you have in peacetime, is the entire combat strength of your after the war, there is no such thing as supplementing while fighting, and taking 10,000 steps back to say that your ship's equipment can keep up, and the skilled soldiers can't keep up - at least in a short period of time.

"If the main fleet of the English Navy can be annihilated in Gibraltar, then the English government will be able to fully realize the reality and finally have to sit down at the negotiating table." Yan Chuansong, chief of the general staff of the expeditionary fleet, said with a smile: "In this way, the war that has lasted for more than a year can end early, so that the sons and daughters on the ship can return to the mainland to reunite with their relatives." ”

"The annihilation of the main fleet of England in World War I and the forcing of the other side to cease war and peace talks are just the most ideal state in our imagination." Wan Botai shook his head and said softly: "But the development of many things often backfires and is unsatisfactory. As we continue to concentrate our scattered fleets towards Gibraltar and show a decisive posture, the English will inevitably be wary and more cautious and hesitant in making decisions accordingly. In the past year, they have successively lost 40 or 50 warships, among which the first and second class battleships, which they relied on as their core combat strength, have also been sunk by our expeditionary fleet, and their naval strength has been seriously weakened. Therefore, in the face of our decisive battle intentions, the English Navy may also choose to passively avoid the battle, so that our battle plan will fail. ”

"It doesn't hurt if the English don't dare to come here for a decisive battle." Yan Chuansong said: "Don't they still have an expeditionary fleet of more than 60 ships in the Mediterranean? As long as we block it and eat this fleet in one bite, we can also break the bones of the English Navy! ”

"That's right! Although this fleet contained many transports, the number of warships was probably no less than thirty, and even if it could destroy most of them, it would certainly make the English feel painful. Liang Yuanfu, commander of the Second Task Force Support Fleet, took over and said confidently: "Then, we will drive the fleet to the door of England and block the Thames." If their navy still doesn't dare to show their heads, then completely blockade England and trap them! ”

Everyone present couldn't help but laugh when they heard this, and everyone had a relaxed expression on their faces.

After a year of fighting at sea, it has fully proved the great advantage of the sailing ship over the ordinary sail warship, and also made the officers and men of the Qi Navy more and more confident.

Oh yes, and the advance advantage of rifled guns.

To be honest, the research and development of this weapon has been called for a long time in the field of military industry in Qi State, but it has not received enough attention. The idea of carving rifling into the inner wall of the cannon and firing a solid metal conical projectile was not at all popular with the army. This kind of shell is too close at range, does not explode, and does not bounce off on the ground, which simply does not arouse the slightest desire of the army to be equipped.

Compared with the army, the navy is more interested in this new weapon, and feels that it may be an effective way to increase the power of Qi's naval guns. Because of the conical shells it fires, the penetration is very good when bombarding the side hull of the enemy warship, and it is easy to make a small bullet hole, which is very obvious. And if this bullet hole happens to be located in the waterline part or even under the waterline, then the cabin of the enemy battleship will be slowly flooded by the influx of seawater, and it is not known that it will have to withdraw from the battle to repair or even sink on the spot.

As for the problem that this artillery has too short a firing range due to its poor airtightness, it is not much of a problem in a battle at sea. After all, the battle line bombardment battle mostly takes place at a close distance of two or three hundred meters, and the conical gun has enough kinetic energy to ensure that it can fly to the target for destruction, so this kind of artillery has received strong support from the navy, and a lot of additional investment has been made, and finally the real thing was taken out three years ago.

This time, the main force of the Qi navy gathered in Europe, and they brought more than 50 of these cannons, which were stored in the holds of several large battleships in case of emergency.

When Wan Botai heard about it, he immediately replaced some of the old guns on the sailing ships with rifled guns, preparing to surprise the English in the next battle.

It is foreseeable that the ironclad ship and rifled artillery will inevitably be the next development direction of the Qi Navy. While the European naval powers, such as England and France, were still desperately trying to solve the problems arising from the use of marine steam engines, the Qi people had entered another leading level.

There is no doubt that this will be a generation gap, a military generation gap that makes the English, the Spaniards, the French, and all of Europe despair.

(End of chapter)